Friday, May 27, 2011

Making "Le Petit Prince" Come to Life

It's always exciting when students reach the point in their language study when they are able to read an original piece of literature in its original language. For me, this happens in French III when students read Le Petit Prince. To help them figure out the meaning of the book without resorting to English is also a challenge. One thing I've tried is to create 3-D representations of things that happen in the book. For example, I created the planet that the Little Prince lives on out of a Styrofoam ball, and I hung it from the ceiling.

In the book, the Little Prince travels around the universe visiting various unusual planets. I created those as well and hung them from the ceiling.

Here's the planet of the drinker.

And here's the planet of the lamplighter.

And here's the planet Earth and the airplane of the pilot, one of the main characters in the book.

﻿Having these planets hanging from the ceiling allows me to explain and review what's happening in each chapter without using English. Obviously, students can also easily be reminded of what they're reading by looking around the room. And every year, students in other levels of French get interested in what the planets mean and ask me about it, which gives me an opportunity to get them excited about being able to read the book in years to come.

LinkWithin

About Me

Bonjour! I'm a full-time high school French teacher in Michigan. I learned French in southeastern France where I had the amazingly fascinating experience of living in a French household and studying at a French university. I currently teach levels I-V (AP) in a college-prep school. This blog is a collection of my most creative lessons and my best ideas for teaching! I share them with you here because I'm inspired by collaborating with other teachers. I hope you'll find something new or inspiring. Thanks for stopping by!